2022 Paper of the Year - Child Abuse and Neglect The International Journal

Julia Garon-Bissonnette, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral researcher at Vanderbilt University, Peabody College. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, with the awarded paper being part of her dissertation. Her broader Ph.D. research focused on the developmental mechanisms involved in the intergenerational repercussions of childhood maltreatment, with a focus on clinically responsive mechanisms to better inform interventions. She thus focused mainly on mentalizing, or reflective functioning, as a mechanism that develops within early caregiving relationships and is associated with secure caregiver-child attachment representations. She focuses on timely developmental periods (i.e. pregnancy and infancy) and the interplay between caregiver and child individual, interpersonal, and psychosocial risk and protective factors.

Ilan has many years of policy, practice and research experience in research and practice relating to children’s services and child protection in the UK and Australia. He started his career as a social worker and manager, working in several local authorities and NGOs in London. He was head of Evaluation, Practice development and Research at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Ilan joined the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, in January 2005 and directed it from 2005-2011. Ilan has particular expertise in leading large multidisciplinary teams conducting large scale programs of research. He had led over 130 research projects and published more than 160 publications. His research interests include comparative child and family services, child protection, ageing, system reform, disability, Indigenous policy, intersectionality, justice, mental health and homelessness.

Sidnei is a Professor at the Department of Forensic Psychology at the Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná (UTP) in Brazil. Currently, he leads a research initiative focused on adapting the NICHD protocol to Mozambican Portuguese and Mozambican Sign Language. Additionally, his research group has been involved in research regarding sexual abuse disclosure at different ages and contexts. He has engaged in research, prevention, and intervention efforts towards child abuse and intimate partner violence during his career.

Veronica Renov was born and raised in Los Angeles and attended college at the University of Southern California. She went on to complete medical school training at the Medical College of Wisconsin before moving back to Los Angeles for pediatric residency training at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. She then made the move to Pittsburgh, PA for fellowship training, and is currently completing her Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellowship at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Along the way she married now-husband, who she met in medical school, and they have an almost two-year old son. They are expecting another boy this Spring, and all four of them will be moving back to LA this Summer!

Dr. Racine is a clinical psychologist, assistant professor, and Director of the Early Lab at the University of Ottawa. She holds the Research Chair in Child and Youth Mental Health at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario where she collaborates with clinicians and community agencies to conduct research on child trauma. Her research examines the impact of early adversity in early childhood and identifies prevention and intervention approaches that promote resilience for children exposed to maltreatment. She is the Special Issues Editor at Child Abuse and Neglect. In addition to having published >100 papers in high impact journals in the fields of mental health and trauma, her work has been included in key policy documents on mental health by the Royal Society of Canada and has informed bills put forward to the House of Commons. Her work has also been cited in key position papers on child mental health, including reports from the U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory, UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank. She is deeply committed to sharing knowledge that will improve policies and program implementation for children exposed to adversity.